OOP: Snape, Lucius, (WAS also: characterisat, Harry/Snape, Wormtail, sayings)

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 62884

Debbie wrote: >I don't recall anyone else's age being defined (adult-
wise), but just Lucius.<

Me (Kirstini) -  actually, it appears to have become Daily Prophet 
practise this year. We also get: "Sturgis Podmore, 39"...
 
Debbie again: >And we knew Snape's age from before. So now we have 
the connection between Snape & Lucius attending school together. 
Hmmm... there has to be a reason why Snape is so good to Draco. Is 
it because he feels guilty about spying on his father? Or were Snape 
& Lucius friends?< 

Stac wrote: >Going with the theory that Snape and Malfoy were in 
some way comrades/friends/whatever back in their school days, why 
would Snape have been terrorized by the Marauders?  I would think 
the best advantage to allying oneself with Malfoy in school would be 
so he could kick the butt of anyone who even thought of terrorizing 
you.  And you see Malfoy Jr. as sort of a pack animal - he's always 
got his entourage in tow.  It seems unlikely that Lucius and Snape 
would have been very close as Snape so far is always seen as 
solitary in the flashbacks and never in proximity to any allies of 
his own.<

And Kirstini again (me):
Well, I dunno. The only people we saw in the flashback were those in 
Snape/MWPP's year, having just finished their exam. I think Lucius 
is about a year older than Snape et al, because Snape was supposed 
to be 35 in PS  - ie in 1990. And Sirius describes him as 
Lucius's "lapdog", a detail he can only have known from his 
schooldays, as their lives didn't cross after this point. Plus, 
there's that "gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be 
Death Eaters." Sirius mentions in GoF - Rosier, Wilkes, Avery and 
two (not three) Lestranges. Why, given this age evidence, wasn't 
Lucius in there? And where were they after the DADA exam?
Something occurs to me. We accept the timeline that James and Lily 
(thus also Snape, MWP) were 21 when Harry nixed Voldemort the first 
time. This means that the vast majority of the DEs were this age 
too - as we have seen from Sirius's handy little recantation in GoF. 
Including Lucius, as the Daily Prophet informs us. So - they were 
all at school for most of the eleven years of Voldemort's rise. And 
from the little information we've been given in OoP (Pensieve, Remus 
and Sirius recanting), it seems to have been a fairly battle-free 
place - James safely hexing everyone, and nothing happening back. So 
who did Voldemort rely on when they were in school?

I don't understand. There were some other DEs - to wit Rookwood - 
but he was undercover the whole time.  Lucius, who was 22 when 
Voldemort disappeared last time, is now pretty much Head DE. They 
all just seem too young to have risen to power so quickly. Barty 
Crouch Jr must have been sixteen when Voldemort toddled off the 
first time - and yet he calls himself "the Dark Lord's most faithful 
servant"? I also don't like all this sprogging at an early age. 
There was a thread doing the rounds pre-OoP speculating on the age 
of the Weasleys, and some people made a very convincing argument for 
them being in their 60s or 70s, saying that, as wizards live longer, 
they wait longer to have children. Not this lot! We have all these 
very young couples, fresh out of Hogwarts, very actively working for 
either the DEs or the Order, possibility they could all get killed 
any second, and yet they're all pausing to have kids? I suppose it's 
al plausible. It just doesn't make a helluva lot of sense to me.
Kirstini
with furrowed brow...